The Morning After: Another disappointing loss for the Seahawks

After a mind-numbing loss to the Arizona Cardinals (7-2), it’s pretty clear that the 2015 Seattle Seahawks (4-5) aren’t a very good football team. Seattle’s vaunted defense was unable to stop Andre Ellington on a 48-yard scamper that put the game away.

Ellington wasn’t the only one who had a good day on the Seahawks defense, as Carson Palmer absolutely torched the Legion of Boom. Palmer repeatedly hit wide open receivers underneath, and over the top, as he completed 29 of 48 passes for 363 yards (7.6 yards per attempt) and three touchdowns with one interception. It was exactly the type of performance that Arizona needed from its quarterback if the Cardinals were going to pick-up a win in Century Link Field.

Seattle actually did a really good job of shutting down the Arizona running game and putting all of the pressure on Palmer’s arm. It was a strategy that almost worked as Palmer fumbled the ball twice and made one really bone headed decision in the first quarter that led to Earl Thomas’ second interception of the season.

But the defense was unable to guard against Michael Floyd, who put together an absolutely outstanding performance on Sunday Night. Floyd hauled in seven catches for 113 yards (16.1 yards per catch) and two touchdowns; he was arguably the most consistent performer for either team during the game.

Despite the glaring errors in coverage, and at the line of scrimmage, the Seahawks defense was able to force three turnovers — converting one Palmer fumble into a touchdown — and give the offense

Unfortunately, the offense was absolute dumpster fire throughout most of the game, especially in the first half Sunday Night. The offensive line’s continued to struggle with protecting Russell Wilson in the pocket and opening up holes for Marshawn Lynch — whom is pretty good, but not nearly as dominant as he used to be.

In fact, the only offensive player that seems to be having any kind of consistent success is Thomas Rawls.

The offensive play calling was a disaster for most of the night, as Darrell Bevell continues to push the limits of Jimmy Graham’s block abilities. Graham had several nice catches, and had a nice block on Lynch’s lone touchdown run, but it feels like the Seahawks aren’t getting the most value out of their new tight end; and it’s entirely on Bevell’s play calling.

It was nice to see Seattle’s offense target Doug Baldwin on some deep routes, especially a pretty seem route that took advantage of space left by a blitzing outside linebacker to move the offense down field. While the Seahawks were able to capitalize off of Baldwin’s big play — Baldwin caught a 32-yard touchdown pass three plays later — the Cardinals never gave Seattle another chance to stretch the field like that again.

At this point it’s pretty clear that Seattle’s biggest weakness (the offensive line) is having a negative effect on Wilson; it feels like Wilson bails on the pocket earlier than he has in the past, thanks to the inconsistent protection up front.

Arizona took full advantage of that by bringing pressure that forced Wilson to one side of the field, and really limiting his options down field. While the Cardinals defense was unable to shut down Wilson, they did enough in the first half and in the fourth quarter to keep Seattle off of the board…and out of the win column.